Hands On: Serious Pop-In the Only Problem with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Massive PS5 Pro Boost | Push Square

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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was plagued by an astoundingly blurry performance mode when it first released on PS5 in February of this year. Obvious graphical limitations were put in place so that the RPG could run at 60 frames-per-second; it played just fine, but it could look rough outside of cutscenes.

With the PS5 Pro, Rebirth has gained an additional graphics setting called 'Versatility'. The goal is to maintain performance mode's smooth 60fps, but offer up a significant resolution boost alongside it.

Fortunately, Square Enix has worked some magic here — at least on a surface level. Rebirth looks dramatically better on Sony's new system, sticking to that all-important 60fps while pushing the resolution to what looks like 4K, or thereabouts. It's a striking night and day difference when compared to performance mode on PS5.

But it's not just the resolution. From what we can tell, the new setting inherits many — if not all — of the benefits from the title's 30fps fidelity mode. The environmental lighting's more dynamic, and it wraps around character models much more convincingly. Gone are the days of Cloud looking like some kind of weird shadow realm clone of himself.

Middle-distance environmental assets seem to have been handed a noticeable glow-up as well, so that areas look way more visually cohesive. And again, you get all of this at an unshakable 60fps.

However, as the headline of this article suggests, there is a disappointing downside to this Pro-exclusive mode. Upon running through multiple locations for the sake of this coverage, we couldn't help but catch a lot of pop-in. That is, assets — like vegetation and rocks — popping into existence as Cloud draws near.

The pop-in is especially prevalent in locales that are heavy on grasses and plants, as the game now makes a habit of rendering detail and shadows when you're just feet away from objects. It's the kind of thing that you might not even notice depending on the direction of your gaze, but once you do see it,